John Livingston (naturalist)

John Allen Livingston (November 10, 1923 – January 17, 2006) was a Canadian naturalist, broadcaster, author, and teacher.[1] He was most known as the voice-over of the Hinterland Who's Who series of television zoological shorts in the 1960s.[2]

He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of Harold Arthur Livingston, who was in the construction business, and Vera Allen Livingston.[3] He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy at the beginning of World War II and earned a degree in English literature in 1943 while on active service.[3] After the war, he worked at the accounting firm of Clarkson Gordon from 1946 to 1949 while engaging in free-lance writing and speaking on environmental issues.[3] He married Constance Margaret ("Peggy") Ellis in 1948, and they had three children: Sally, Zeke and Least.[3]

He joined the Audubon Society of Canada in 1955 as managing director and editor of its newsletter.[3] He later became head of the science unit at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), most notably serving as the first executive producer of the long-running documentary series The Nature of Things.[4] He left the CBC in 1968, but remained a regular contributor of documentary films to The Nature of Things,[5] most notably the Canadian Film Award-winning Wild Africa in 1970.[6] He then formed LGL Limited: environmental research associates, an environmental consulting company, with Aird Lewis and Bill Gunn of the Nature Conservancy of Canada; the firm became most noted for their work on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.[3]

Livingston helped found York University's Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) in 1971[1] and taught there until he retired in 1993, becoming a professor emeritus.[3]

In1985 he married his second wife, Ursula Moller Jolin, a former graduate student.[3]

Livingston was the author of several books, including The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation (1981) and the Governor General's Award-winning Rogue Primate (1994).[7]

Selected bibliography

  • Darwin and the Galapagos (1966) (with Lister Sinclair)
  • Birds of the Northern Forest (1966) (with J. F. Lansdowne)
  • One Cosmic Instant (1968)
  • Arctic Oil (1981)
  • The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation (1981)
  • Canada: A Natural History (1988)
  • Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)

References

  1. ^ a b Louise Fabiani (April 8, 2007). "The greatest environmentalist you've never heard of". Toronto Star. pp. D1, D9. Retrieved December 21, 2025.
  2. ^ Randy Boswell, "Original loon vignette found in CBC archive; Hinterland who's who video dates to 1963". Vancouver Sun, July 12, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sandra Martin (January 28, 2006). "John Livingston, Naturalist". The Globe and Mail. p. S13.
  4. ^ David Suzuki, "How a TV series grew and grew: 30th birthday of a program bringing nature to the people". Toronto Star, February 24, 1990.
  5. ^ Sandra Martin, "John Livingston, naturalist 1923-2006". The Globe and Mail, January 28, 2006.
  6. ^ "Special to Focus on Game Reserves" Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Calgary Herald, February 20, 1970. p. 81.
  7. ^ Ray Conlogue, "Wiebe wins Governor-General's prize: Edmonton author among 14 recipients at elegant Montreal ceremony". The Globe and Mail, November 16, 1994.
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